ABC Open South West Victoria

The true story of Oddball

If you've seen the trailer for the new Australian film Oddball then you know about the extraordinary tale of how a maremma sheepdog came to be guarding a small colony of penguins from fox attack.

Well, Oddball is a real dog, those penguins really do live on an island just off the coast of Warrnambool, and it really was a local chicken farmer called Swampy who came up with the initial idea.

The penguins really were down to numbers as low as six due to fox attack, and the dogs really have saved them and protected them so well that there are now 150 on Middle Island.

One of the real life characters not portrayed in the film, yet integral to the Middle Island Project, is Dave Williams. Don't get me wrong, Dave doesn't mind one bit, and we all know it isn't a documentary. But this is a good chance to tell Dave's story.

If it wasn’t for Dave, the Middle Island Maremma project would never have come about, and locals of Warrnambool who know his part in the story are really proud of him.

Dave is known around Warrnambool as the Maremma Man. In fact when I got my own maremma, Peppa, people kept asking me, "Have you met Dave Williams? He's the maremma guy" and "You should give Dave a call, he's the maremma man, he knows everything about those dogs".

I didn't know about the Middle Island project at this point and couldn't understand everyone's steadfast belief in this man as the 'maremma guru'. Little did I know.

Dave first encountered maremmas when he was working on Swampy's free-range chicken farm, washing eggs as a part-time job during university.

The Middle Island Maremma project: How it came about

Swampy (Allan Marsh) had successfully been using maremmas to protect his flock of chickens from fox attack for years. Dave fell in love with a particular puppy in the litter who came and sat at his feet one day. He swapped a week's wages for her, and called her Ester. While (attempting) to train Ester, he quickly realised the unique qualities of these dogs. They can be quite difficult to train if you don't know a lot about them. They are wolf-like in their independent thinking and their naturally protective instincts mean that they bark during the night to ward off predators.

As Dave tells it, one day he and Swampy saw a shocking image and article in the local paper - a pile of dead penguins that had been mauled by foxes who had swum across the 1km stretch of ocean to the island.

Swampy remarked that what they needed was "to get a coupla maremmas on that island".

The idea took seed in Dave's quick-fire mind. His dad was a wildlife officer trying to combat the issue of the foxes and Dave was studying ecology at Deakin, so he decided to write up the proposal as a university assignment.

With assistance from his dad and Swampy, they put that proposal forward to the State environment body as a memo, and eventually he and Swampy presented the proposal to Warrnambool City Council.

Incredibly, after a long period of consultation and deliberation, the Council supported the idea. They didn't have many other options, as fox baiting clearly wasn't working and the penguin colony was on its last flippers.

The first dog to be sent out onto the island was Swampy's faithful dog, Oddball, who had been protecting chickens for years. Dave took her out to the island and camped with her for about a week when she first started, just to make sure she and the penguins got along.

Oddball was just there as a trial, and the trial was successful, so eventually Dave was engaged to train a number of dogs up for the exact purpose of protecting the penguins on the island. It took four years and quite a few dogs to get it right: as Dave says, they learnt as they went along, they made mistakes, they were trying something no one else had done.

Eventually, Dave worked out the perfect balance and successfully trained a pair of dogs who were humanised enough to be approachable by more than one animal handler, but independent enough to live on the island without much human contact.

In many ways, Dave has been key to the existence and success of this project.

Dave Williams and his Bandicoot Bodyguards

If you were to go out on a guided tour to Middle Island today, you would meet Eudy and Tula, the guardian dogs that have successfully protected the little penguins for 6 years now. It was Dave who trained them up, but it won't be Dave who takes you on the tour.

Dave has moved on and is working on an even more ambitious project with Zoos Victoria. He is developing a bandicoot protection program at Werribbee Sarari Zoo, using maremmas to protect eastern barred bandicoots from extinction.

Dave is currently training three maremmas for this project. One is an ambassador dog, Albus; he is the good-looking face of the project, the one people can meet and pat. Two other dogs are the actual bandicoot guardians. They now live with a flock of sheep at Werribee Zoo and are slowly being introduced to the smells of bandicoots. People aren't allowed to meet them, to ensure they can concentrate on their jobs.

Later down the track, the bandicoots will be moved into the large outdoor enclosure to co-exist with the dogs and the sheep. The hope is that the presence of the dogs will ward of predators such as foxes and wild cats, but won't upset the bandicoots.

The sheep are just there to keep the dogs company, because bandicoots aren't very sociable and are nocturnal.

Cute hey? Maybe there should be a sequel to Oddball in the wings?

It is no surprise that Dave has continued to work with maremmas and native animals. The man seemingly has no fear of failure, he has so much confidence in the ability of this breed of dog to do their job of protecting other animals. He also has a long-held love of nature and dogs.

"I did my first dog training course when I was 10, my dad's been a wildlife officer since I was 16," says Dave.

"I think I'll always be doing something like this, I'll never be done!"

12
Comments

reader

Hello
i am doing a speech that envoles oddball story i was kindly wondering if you could add something about him being a trouble maker for the town
from an impressed reader

Elena

Hi Emily! I live in the Maremma, Southern Tuscany (the swampy area, rich in pastures, from where those white dogs originate).
Thank you for the article and for the whole story.
So happy our most traditional-iconic dogs helped the penguins!!

Lorraine OBrien

Wonderful article Emily. I've been wondering when someone would actually research the true story of our maremmas on the island. As a wildlife shelter, I was somewhat involved with the early project, sadly more often looking after (or getting euthanised) damaged birds. Dave and Stan were absolute pioneers and really had to work against all the existing rules and legislation which prevented dogs and wildlife cohabiting. Oddball has been a marvellous boost for Warrnambool and the beautiful film is something to be proud of. But thank you for sharing Dave's story, passion and dedication for our wildlife.

Sharon

Thank you for this short doco on the project and the scientist behind it.

Julia Adams

Fantastic to see this side of the story

Robin Maguire

The story you tell is closer to the real truth than the Oddball movie ever would be. But as the adage goes “there is no gain without pain”; people seem to want to forget that the dogs did actually kill some of the Little Penguins on Middle Island during the initial setting up of the project.
Agree 100% with Lisa’s comment.

Fred Red

Its nice to see real down to earth people helping nature. Well done.

Steven

Thanks Emily for bringing this to us. We lost chickens to foxes and bought Maremma girl. No problems with foxes since.They are such a versatile breed,Bella is a pet therapy dog at a nursing home and show winner too. Her first love though remains protecting the animals on our five acres.

Helen Brennan

i love this..but remind people that for decades there have been maremma people with these wonderful dogs guarding their flocks of sheep, goats, chickens and so on. MY own experience started in 1997.. with 7 month old Maremmas Oscar and Lucinda arriving.. the slaughter of my goats and sheep literally stopped overnight. If I had not experienced this i would not have believed it possible. Have been involved with maremmas ever since.

Jan Johnson

Loved this film. It's so good to have the real story so well covered Emily. Congrats!

Chris Lourey

I have always loved the story of "Dave, the maremma man" because it really is the truly, amazing, "who would believe this?" story behind the story. And we don't get to hear about dedicated Dave very often. Congratulations Emily on more wonderful story-telling - beautiful writing and gorgeous video. (Feeling warm and fuzzy, sort of like...)

Lisa Owen

I am one of those locals who met Dave very early on. Though Swampy used Maremmas to guard his chickens and was instrumental to implementation of the program, I can't help but feel dismayed to hear that the 'Maremma guy' has been left out of the picture. Why I wonder?
We need a good documentary series, running over a couple of months, to detail the truth of this remarkable story. It has everything: pathos, science, humour and could help to raise awareness about the desperate plight of so many of our native animals including icons like koalas, wombats, Tassy Devils and many species of frogs and birds including the Orange Bellied Parrot that spends some of it's time on our Merri Wetland, trying to avoid Midfield Meats rendering plant.
Thank you very much for writing and publishing this Emily. Very well done!